Most people consume news from outlets that are biased
But often they misunderstand or underestimate media bias
Question Can we make citizens learn about media bias?
…Does this lead to switching to less biased media, and changes in political attitudes?
Media literacy: Activate Type 2 processing via innoculation or prebunking interventions to improve ability to discern biased or false information
Attentiveness prompts: Ask citizens about important characteristics of information (e.g. whether it is accurate)
Ask citizens to analyze the topics and sentiment of news headlines by state and (in addition) independent media
…to test whether…
Paying attention to what media outlet covers make citizens:
Learn about media coverage patterns (positive domestic and negative foreign)
Change perceptions media outlet’s bias (state is more biased)
Adjust media consumption (away from state media)
Change political attitudes (more critical of government / policies)
Russia: an autocratic regime with state control of media environment
\(\Rightarrow\) Harder to shift media beliefs and consumption
Study:
Watch 4 to 6 short news headline segments per wave from one of three TV channels:
\(\Rightarrow\) In our sample 67% watch Rossiya-1; 3% (!) watch RTVI
After each video, six questions asking to count how many times the following was discussed:
Lower support for the government and stronger concerns about Ukraine
No clear differences between treatment groups
Citizens do learn about media coverage patterns when prompted to pay attention to it
They also do improve perceptions of relatively new media, but do not revise beliefs about media bias of popular propaganda
And do not shift away from state media
| Variable | Obs | Mean | SD | Min | p25 | p50 | p75 | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Socio-economic characteristics | ||||||||
| Age | 1176 | 44.81 | 12.06 | 19 | 36.00 | 45.00 | 54.00 | 80.00 |
| Female | 1175 | 0.48 | 0.50 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Education | 1176 | 2.55 | 0.68 | 0 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| Income level (categorical) | 1176 | 2.82 | 0.88 | 0 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 5.00 |
| Employed permanently | 1176 | 0.74 | 0.44 | 0 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Use of advanced Internet technologies | ||||||||
| VPN | 1050 | 0.50 | 0.50 | 0 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Total (out of 8) | 1176 | 3.22 | 2.13 | 0 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 5.00 | 8.00 |
| Overall news consumption | ||||||||
| Frequency (categorical) | 1176 | 2.74 | 0.63 | 0 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| From TV | 1142 | 0.80 | 0.40 | 0 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| From online media | 1142 | 0.73 | 0.44 | 0 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Recently consumed news | ||||||||
| From Rossiya-1 | 1175 | 0.68 | 0.47 | 0 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| From RTVI | 1175 | 0.04 | 0.19 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 |
| Intensity of state media use | 1173 | 0.24 | 0.18 | 0 | 0.12 | 0.19 | 0.31 | 0.88 |
| Intensity of indep. media use | 1173 | 0.07 | 0.15 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.11 | 1.00 |
| Attitudes | ||||||||
| Media in Russia unbiased | 1176 | 0.52 | 0.28 | 0 | 0.33 | 0.67 | 0.67 | 1.00 |
| Strength of preference for unbiased news | 1176 | 0.36 | 0.23 | 0 | 0.25 | 0.25 | 0.50 | 0.75 |
| President approval | 1173 | 0.60 | 0.49 | 0 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Government focuses too much on | ||||||||
| Law and order | 1176 | 0.09 | 0.29 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 |
| Foreign affairs | 1176 | 0.12 | 0.33 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 |
No pure control? No systematic evidence of Placebo (Kultura) group changes over time
Political news push respondents away? No differences in patterns of attrition across treatment groups
Less attention to political news? High and similar rates of correct answers about the topic and channel across groups
Experimenter demand? No differences across treatment groups in respondents’ assessments of study goals
Shirikov, Syunyaev · Learning about Bias?